This is what politics has become

George Galloway’s victory last night is a reminder of a wider
problem in British politics: the low regard in which all main political parties are held. By-elections can throw up quirky victories, usually ironed out in the general election. There won’t
be an army of Galloway’s marching on parliament at the next election. It’s like Glasgow East: a classic Labour safe seat-cum-‘rotten borough’ taken for granted (and ignored)
for so long that the ruling party’s apparatus had atrophied. Like John Mason in Glasgow East, Galloway won’t
last long.

But the same phenomenon which took Galloway to victory last night, and humbled the main parties, is also at work in Scotland. The unionist parties are on their knees; polls suggest the Lib Dems
will lose all of their mainland seats. And this is not because of a surge in support for independence. The SNP, for all its ills, has mass support (and no donor problems) for a simple reason: it is
a cause, a movement. Once, this could be said of the Conservatives and Labour. Not any more.

David Cameron seems to fit into a fairly long tradition of being a Tory leader who doesn’t seem to like the Tory party very much. Ed Miliband was enstooled by his union paymasters, none of
who would look out of place in a 1978 news bulletin. The Lib Dems’ identity is being subsumed beneath that of the coalition. The three parties are not doing enough to connect with the
concerns of the public. In private, Tory ministers have become used to answering criticisms with two words: Ed Miliband. In other words, ‘yes, we may be only 6 per cent of the way through the
cuts, dismal progress, with no growth to speak of. But what are these voters going to do? Vote Red Ed?’

Voters, now and again, do have other choices. The government is lucky that UKIP is so dismally led — because, like the SNP, it is a cause (and not one I agree with). It may yet overtake the
Lib Dems to become the 3rd-largest political party. The main options on the Westminster menu did not inspire the voters of Bradford last night. This should be a message not just to Cameron, but all
political parties: this isn’t a game of political chess, this isn’t about finding the middle ground in Westminster but the common ground with the public.

Six years ago, a group called the Power Inquiry published
"http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=%22power%20inquiry%22&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CEIQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parliament.uk%2Fdocuments%2Fcommons%2Flib%2Fresearch%2Fbriefings%2Fsnpc-03948.pdf&ei=r6p1T87mBcyn8gPIseShDQ&usg=AFQjCNF1DhxqRYNZQi7yeAsjrEHV_JbsLA&cad=rja">
a report into this. Party membership may be plunging, they said, but let’s not insult the public by calling this apathy. People are still joining groups like the RSPB and volunteering in
their communities. They are just not excited by the choice in front of them. Political parties have spent so long copying each other that they have forgotten about the outside world. Ferdinand
Mount, a former Spectator political editor, was one of the commissioners. The report made very little impact, as it delivered a message that the main political parties don’t want to hear. But if
we’re to draw any lessons from Galloway’s victory, I suspect a few of them can be found in that report.

Perhaps its time to pack the entire HoCs off to the Lords and give the John Lewis Partnership or the Army a go. Either of these would get my vote. Nothing ventured….

Hexhamgeezer

I S @ 30th, 6:08pm

Agreed

Peter

Rhoda is correct – Fraser and his ilk are part of the problem. What are all these spinners for? Can’t we draw our own conclusions? Once we had MPs who would have controlled this big brother drift, but they sadly have been bought off with huge salaries and perks.

Archibald

Simon Stephenson,Some good points as always even if I don’t agree 100%.To my list, to be a bit more explicit, although it was probably clear, honesty is a huge factor. I’m reminded of QT prior to the election, an example which is perhaps useful given the Galloway win. Caroline Lucas, never much of a hero here, was (at least in the mind of her Tory attacker on the panel) ‘cornered’. She was, he said, nothing more than a socialist hiding behind a cloak of green. She replied that she’d never hidden her socialist beliefs and on the contrary was very proud to call herself a socialist. His face was a picture of incredulity, here he was faced with someone who could say what she believed and thought about any subject. Galloway was in the same position. While the views of the cabinet are clearly a different matter, why normal MPs can’t say what they feel about issues is beyond me, now and again there will be something they will disagree on versus party policy. Unless it is the entire manifesto, I have no issue with that, and I don’t see why the parties do. The press make so much of it, and so parties do, then the press get annoyed by avoidance of questions. They have been one of the main factors in creating the situation, politicians need to realize that the public don’t care, they want their MPs to tell the truth and stand up for what they believe in. More people like Frank Field, someone I rarely agree with but he thinks people first, party second. A rare thing these days.

DavidDP

We’re lucky the political media doesn’t focus on nonsense like pasties, as at least there’s a chance they can inform the public about….

What?

Oh.

B*gger.

Myles Harrison

I see that the newspapers, BBC, Sky and of course the main parties have all refused to address the real issues arising from Bradford. Genuinely depressing and it will not end well but many conservatives who have reluctantly stayed with party will draw their own conclusions and move on. If ever a vote represented isolationism, rejection of the host society and a challenge to the rest of us then this was it.

Peter From Maidstone

Fraser, what a load of cobblers. The result has nothing at all to do with disaffection with the three main parties, and everything to do with a block Muslim immigrant vote which has been told who to vote for by the local Imams.

In previous elections the bloc voted for a Conservative Muslim rather than a Labour Sikh. It is now bigger, and better organised and has voted for a quisling who will do its bidding.

There is a story here but it is not one that anyone will expect the Spectator to cover. It is not an aspect of the ‘Spectator Life’.

Andy Barnes

Am I the only one who spotted:

‘Ed Miliband was enstooled by his union paymasters’

Priceless Freudian Slip Fraser.

TomTom

Stop being so general Fraser. Bradford is corrupt and the Council is corrupt under all 3 parties which is why it is usually NOC. People are fed up – these Voters don’t want Gay Marriage or Tax Cuts for Bankers, or even the useless corrupt Council – they want CHANGE !!!

Punk 2 ation

“There won’t be an army of Galloway’s marching on parliament at the next election.”

Fraser. Why the apostrophe?

Rhoda Klapp

Blimey, Fraser, you could have read that right here in the comments any time I’ve been rading this blog, quite a few years now. And now you are telling us. If I were to say you are part of the problem, would you believe that? Because that is what I say, and although there are no comments up as I write, I suspect a lot of others are going to say the same.

Oh, don’t mention the i word.

cc cc

There will come a time for the English when words are no longer sufficient to counter the evils that threaten them as a distinct people. They will have to fight, as before, and they will.

The problem with events like Bradford is that it brings out the crazies.

Simon Stephenson.

These are the reasons why there’s so much disillusionment with politicians:-

1. Over the last 25-30 years, Parties have grown to understand that to be elected they must promise more than the other Parties. Being the more capable at administering the reality is no longer an election winner.

2. This battle of promises has led both to an ever-increasing unreality about the portrayals of what politicians are capable of, and also to the widely-held misunderstanding that things only happen if the politicians cause them to happen.

3. Large numbers of the general population have grown to expect far more than is reasonable from the political system, and in their disappointment with what they are actually getting, they’re concluding that it is the people who are inadequate, and not that their expectations are unreasonable.

4. The type of person now going into politics is different, now that the emphasis is so much on style and presentation, and less and less on substance and competent statesmanship.

So what we have is a political culture which has gone off in totally the wrong direction, and in doing so has attracted too many of the wrong sort of people into running it. What we need now is for the marketing men and the snake-oil salesmen who have colonised politics to go off and resume trying to sell widgets to people who don’t want them, and leave politics to those with the knowledge, experience and good reasoning to enable them to govern competently.

Russell

Quite right Tom Tom,although many years ago, many houses ago, many wives ago, many cars ago, many motorcyles ago and many, many politicians ago.

TomTom

“One other thing about Galloway (like him or loathe him) he campaigned on the doorstep and met the electorate”

E X A C T L Y !!!!!!!

TomTom

“I was at School in between Bradford and Leeds (Apperley Bridge).”

So Russell you went to Woodhouse Grove ?

I S

The 3 main parties will be even more desperate to introduce public funding of their corrupt, ineffective, unappealing corpses.

whatawaste

Rhoda 4:34pm

It is not just the bubble and the MSM but also on the more serious blogs trolls from all sides of the political spectrum try to destabilise any attempt at forensic analysis. The tribalism serves to put off those who wish to be informed which clearly the political elites do not want. Of the topics you mention not one can be addressed by a trite one-liner yet that is what the 3 main parties will always resort to. Yes a soundbite. One other thing about Galloway (like him or loathe him) he campaigned on the doorstep and met the electorate – the modern politico does not like getting their hands dirty meeting the plebs.

TrevorsDen

Its you in the media which bring politics down to its lowest common denominator and now you are surprised its been elected?

Kittler

Lets not get too excited folks. Remember Galloway never has, nor ever will, exercise an iota of power. He is just a piece of political entertainment.Influence? Well, any cause endorsed with his support is likely to be damaged and diminished.Some action is counterproductive and Galloway, although able from time to time, to garner a particular support, alienates most who decide things.

Danielle

What we need is electoral reform. If we had real proportional representation then Labour and the Tories wouldn’t get more than 20%. The current system does not allow voters to vote the way they want because to vote for UKIP or Green or whoever is seen as a wasted vote. This Government are driving through austerity, but no-one has voted in favour of austerity, the coalition has no mandate for its policies.

Andrew Saint

Agree with Peter from Maidstone. The three main parties have fallen over themselves to woo the Muslim vote in places like Bradford, knowing that the local “elders” could deliver votes in shovels. Great to see it has backfired on them (even if it does mean seeing Galloway’s smug features back in the limelight).

Paul Worthington

After watching Tories use PR swagmen like that satchel chap who spent a lot on con “art”, the 1990s group Blair and the Blatherers gave up all principles in order to get elected with the backing of the likes of Murdoch. And then sacrificed thousands of lives to their inability not to lie. And the economy to their inability to do simple sums. That has created a moral vacuum into which all kinds of weird substances can be sucked. Get a couple of hairy chaps in funny clothes pointing the way with a holy book in a place like Yorkistan on the Moors, and that substance can even be as weird as George G..